Making the case for a single crouton.

We always had our salad course after the meal and it’s funny how strange that tradition seems to some people. The most interesting and often overlooked salad tradition was the single crouton. Every salad my grandmother made had it. She took a piece of stale bread(very lightly toasted if you don’t have stale bread), rubbed it on both sides with a clove of garlic added it to the undressed salad. The course surface of the bread picked up just enough garlic. When we were ready for the salad course(with a good selection of cheeses) she’d dress the salad with salt, pepper, oil and vinegar. A small simple addition, but you would be surprised by the difference it makes.